There’s something about starting a hike on a Saturday afternoon at the bottom of a mountain I just can’t seem to remember.  After a nearly sleepless night and a great opening day of trout season(ref The Student becomes the teacher) I finally opened my new GoLite Jam 50 pack I bought online. Yes I know I just bought an Osprey Exos a few weeks ago, but this one is lighter and blue.  So go count something you own too many of then we’ll talk.  

I figured out a game plan of parking at Rt 81 and heading north to the William Penn Shelter to spend the night, then off to 183 for a Sunday afternoon pick up.  Along the way I ran into two gobblers and kicked up two grouse which pretty much made the trip worth it by itself.

 

  

  

  

 Shortly after passing the wildlife I started to notice my back was getting a little soggy. My Osprey Exos has excellent air flow but I still get hot having the back on my back. At one point I took my GoLite Jam off and felt it for dampness, finding only what I assumed was back sweat. In my rush to get hiking I neglected to put my gear inside a contractor bag seperating it from my water bladder sleeve. After the soggy dampness turned to chilly water on the seat of my pants reality sank in, quickly. Somehow my hose loosened from the bladder spilling water into the sleeve and then directly into the gear compartment. I dropped my back and set up for a yard sale right in the middle of the trail. Ripping things out as fast as possible to make sure what needed to be dry, still was. I have never been so thankful to spend $20 a piece for Sea to Summit Nano sil dry stuff sacks in my life. Aside from my wet white butt and my sleeping pad everything stayed dry. Including my DIY down quilt. That would have been detrimental to getting any sleep or being warm at night. 

  

As I approached the last mile before the shelter things got weird. It’s not uncommon to find people’s belongings left behind on the trail. But not like this. The first grocery bag I came across had some dry cotton long johns I could see though the bag hanunging on the root ball of a downed tree. The second bag a few hundred yards down contained: a belt, a woolen scarf with matching red mittens, a sweat shirt, and a full sized paperback book.  This bag caught my curiosity pretty well and had me looking around and over my shoulder. It just didn’t add up.  The third bag put me over the threshold from curious to weirded out. At this point I am over 2 miles from the nearest main road. The third bag contains a wet pair of campfire smokey denim jeans, a pair of needle nose pliers, a full sized can opener, and an electric(corded) Wahl hair clippers, freshly used.  The overly skeptical of everything mindset is not having any part of this shelter tonight, I thought to myself. 

 

  

  

  

 

I made it to the 501 shelter to find two hikers from VA and a NOBO thru hiker finishing off up an attempt from a few years ago named Beavis.  His name was quite fitting, of course we got along great.  Had I known previously I would spent the night at 501 I would have forgone carrying my dinner the whole way and ordered of the delivery menu stack like everyone else did. Meat lovers pizza with extra cheese sure smells amazing while eating rehydrated freeze dried beef stew out of a bag. 

 

 I think all those sketchy grocery bags along the trail hgot to my head and I ended up having nightmares and waking up several times throughout the night. The worst kind of nightmare to have while you’re sleeping in an AT shelter, is a nightmare about something in an AT shelter.  The wind howling all night and the outside temp in the mid 20’s didn’t help me sleep either. 

I made my way out of 501 convinced I would have a nice hot breakfast in an hour or so at a tent site I saw on the guide.  I passed a few hikers that morning. While I was bumbling down the trail they were racing up towards the adventures ahead. One girls I passed had a pack far larger than mine including a tent that judging by the poles strapped to the bottom of her bag was more of a palace than a tent. I also passed a nother man with a pack at least 70 liters filled to the brim. It boggles my mind some of the bull and weight people carry.  I’m all for comfortable camping but the cling part only comes after the hiking part. I must spend too much time buying, researching or weighing my gear on my food scale. Ironically I was still having some knee issues and it was really slowing me down. I took a few short breaks and ended up sitting down on the side of the road at Rt 183 as my ride arrived. Perfect timing. 

   

            Mysterious white powder in the drinking cup box for “Good Friday” no thanks.